Scaredy cat
It goes by many names, avoidance.
‘Head in the sand’, ‘in denial’ and ‘turn a blind eye’ come quickly to mind. There are more. Why so many versions? Because it’s so frustratingly prevalent!
The most vanilla, least evocative and most corporate-speak version is ‘conflict averse’. And I’ve been wondering why I have such an aversion to it.
And then it dawned on me. If you’ve ever worked for a conflict averse boss, the type who uses avoidance as a strategy, then you’ll know the words don’t come close to matching your experience. Like feeling ignored or unimportant.
You want your boss to step up and take the tough decisions. You want them to have the difficult conversations and to be someone you respect, before being someone you like (although of course you want to like them too).
But ‘conflict averse’ is a polite phrase and civility matters.
And let’s be kind for a moment. Let’s think about why they’d be avoidant in the first place.
- It could be because they want to save face.
- It might be because they don’t know what to say.
- It could be that they know what to say, but they’re not sure how to say it.
- And perhaps they’re just extremely busy and feel overwhelmed.
Understanding is a good place to start.
Now it’s your turn!
What corporate-speak do you have an aversion to? Contact me and let me know what you think.
